Title: 38th, 39th, and 40th Annual Meetings of the American Aging Association The 38th Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association (AAA) and 23rd Meeting of the American College of Clinical Gerontology (ACCG) will be held in Scottsdale, AZ, May 29 - June 1, 2009 and the 39th Annual Meeting of the AAA with the 24th Meeting of AACG in Portland, OR, June 4-10, 2010, and the 40th annual meeting from June 3-6, 2011 in Baltimore, MD. The theme for the 2009 meeting is "Integrative Biology, Hormones. Signaling, and Aging," and for the 2010 meeting "Inflammaging: Aging of the Immune System and Age-related Diseases." The theme of the 40th AAA meeting remains to be to be determined. The goal of the annual AAA/AACG meetings is to assemble investigators working in diverse areas of basic and clinical experimental gerontology to review and discuss recent developments in their fields. The AAA/AACG meeting provides a unique forum for presentation of recent advances in aging research and cross-fertilization of different gerontologic disciplines, as well as for recruiting students, recent graduates, and senior scientists into aging research. Based on rate of increase in participation in past meetings, we anticipate that at least 350 scientists, clinicians, students, and laypersons will attend the 2009 meeting and over 400 the 2010 meeting. The aging process is clearly multi-factorial. Therefore, within the themes of the meetings, a wide variety of topics at the forefront of aging research will be presented and discussed. The programs consist of invited and Award lectures presented in Plenary Sessions;additional major sessions consist of 4 to 5 invited presentations, some scheduled in a dual, simultaneous format, and dual sessions of short platform contributed presentations chosen from abstracts submitted by registrants. All sessions incorporate time for questions and discussion. We will also include poster sessions to allow all registrants wishing to present data to do so. Other key elements of each meeting include sessions devoted to enhancement of graduate students'participation in gerontological research, a Trans-Atlantic Symposium funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom to support presentation by British scientists and to encourage cross- Atlantic collaboration, and the annual Nathan Shock Center Symposia featuring research presentations by investigators from each of the five NIA-sponsored Nathan Shock Gerontology Research Centers. We request funds to cover costs for providing the venues for these meetings and travel expenses for speakers for the central programs highlighting the following key areas: in 2009- Integrative biology of aging: signaling and coordination from molecules to cells to organisms;Hormones, genes, and longevity;Hormones, skeletal muscle, and neuromuscular junctions;Pituitary and steroid hormones;Nutritional factors;Progress toward negligible senescence;Physiology and genomics of caloric restriction;Hormone effects on the neurobiology of aging;Adipose, insulin resistance, inflammation and atherosclerosis;and Evolutionary issues in aging and age-related disease;in 2010- aging effects on immune system function and related topics. Special efforts will be made to encourage participation of women and minorities. The 2009 meeting will be preceded by a pre- conference workshop, funded by non-NIH sources, on "Protein Quality and Aging," which will, as the title implies, cover a wide variety of topics related to changes in protein synthesis, function, damage, and degradation associated with the aging process. Topics for the 2010 and 2011 Pre-conference workshops remain to be determined. Attachment The graying of the baby boom generation and the progressive increase in life expectancy together are leading to unparalleled expansion of the population over 65 and over 85 years of age, producing a demographic imperative for improvement in the health of the elderly. The annual meetings of the American Aging Association (AAA) serve the important function of helping to inform the public regarding the progress of aging research and the quest for practical means of prolonging the healthy productive portion of human lifespan. In concord with meetings of the American College of Clinical Gerontology (ACCG), the AAA meetings increase awareness and knowledge of gerontology among physicians and other members of the health professions. By bringing together leading investigators working in the various areas of the biology of aging, AAA meetings provide a forum for critical discussion of recent developments and presentation of key findings from ongoing research. Therefore, this meeting is instrumental in stimulating further progress in gerontology and in keeping investigators up-to-date on developments and technologies in experimental gerontology.